I've noticed a pattern in StackOverflow and on another forum I participate on ... a user asks a question, always related to difficulties with corrupted PPT files, and within a short time, gets an answer with vague suggestions, some of them incorrect or irrelevant, and a link to the same site or forum page on the same site:

@nicael nope, common spam is a single account posting direct spam. This is case of a single spammer with many accounts, gaining reputation by accepting answers then upvoting each other. Such rings can cause big trouble, e.g. sticking questions in the Hot Network Questions sidebar thus gaining ultra high traffic to their website.
– Shadow The Dragon WizardOct 4 '14 at 19:47

@Sha I mean that their purpose is to promote their site rather than get rep :)
– nicaelOct 4 '14 at 19:48

@Mat Yes, just saw that and the other identical post on SuperUser and flagged both as spam too. Thanks.
– Steve RindsbergOct 4 '14 at 19:50

spammers gone to the hell with their spam. !!.
– nicaelOct 4 '14 at 19:55

7

Yup, it's part of a coordinated campaign to spam file recovery tools to Stack Overflow, Super User, Server Fault, and other sites on the network: meta.stackoverflow.com/a/269868/19679 . They've been getting progressively more creative with their spam, now seeding questions with one account and answering with another. The real problem is that reviewers are usually approving their spam now, so I have to sweep through every few days and remove the spam that made it through.
– Brad LarsonOct 4 '14 at 21:34

For example, both of the spam examples you provide above received "No Action Needed" reviews on SO. Makes me shake my head and sigh.
– Brad LarsonOct 4 '14 at 21:36

1

@Brad I'll give it to the spammer, it's hard to see any problem when looking on each answer apart. It does appear legit.
– Shadow The Dragon WizardOct 4 '14 at 22:33

Thanks for the add'l suggestion, ChrisF. FYI, I'd seen these messages first on Microsoft's Answers forum. After our discussion here, I went back there to see if anything could be done to eliminate them and lo 'n behold, the threads had already been deleted. I like this pattern. ;-)
– Steve RindsbergOct 4 '14 at 20:26